$100 in 1960 is worth $460 in 1991,
because prices increased 360.1% over that period, an average of
5.05% a year.
$100 in 1960 has
the same buying power as
$460
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
360.1%
Average inflation rate
5.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$460
Price difference ($100 base)
$360
CPI in 1960
29.6
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1960 → 1991
$460
$100 in 1991 → 1960
$21.73
What happened to prices between 1960 and 1991
Between 1960 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 29.6 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 360.1%, which works out to an average of
5.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1960 bought what
$0.22 buys in 1991: the 1960 dollar
lost 78.3% of its purchasing power over
these 31 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.7% in 1960, up from 1959’s 0.7% even
as the economy slipped into recession that April, a downturn that would
prove the shortest since World War II. The year’s defining political
moment came that November, when John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Richard
Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history,
decided by roughly two-tenths of a percentage point in the popular vote.
Television played a new role in the race: the first-ever televised
presidential debate that September, watched by an estimated 70 million
people, was widely seen as favoring the telegenic Kennedy. Civil rights
protest took a new form that February, when four Black freshmen at North
Carolina A&T State University sat down at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch
counter in Greensboro and refused to leave; the sit-in tactic spread to
dozens of Southern cities within weeks. Cold War tensions flared that May,
when a Soviet missile downed an American U-2 spy plane deep inside Soviet
airspace. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured alive, embarrassing
the Eisenhower administration and collapsing a Paris summit called to ease
relations with Moscow. Consumer prices finished 1960 199.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
Every 1960 amount converts to 1991 at the same ratio, 4.60: $1,000 becomes
$4,601, and $10,000 becomes $46,014.
Amount in 1960
Value in 1991
$1.00
$4.60
$5.00
$23.01
$10.00
$46.01
$20.00
$92.03
$50.00
$230
$100
$460
$500
$2,301
$1,000
$4,601
$5,000
$23,007
$10,000
$46,014
$100,000
$460,135
$1,000,000
$4,601,351
Inflation by spending category, 1960–1991
Between 1960 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 693.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 181.6%, against 360.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1960
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1960 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.05%
$460
Medical care
6.91%
$794
Core (all items less food & energy)
5.08%
$464
Energy
5.03%
$458
Food
5.00%
$454
Transportation
4.70%
$415
Apparel
3.40%
$282
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1960: housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1960 to 1991
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1960s (2.74% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1960–1991 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1960, at end
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$131
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$278
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$442
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$460
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1960
$100 from 1960 had already become $192 by
1976, on its way to $460 in 1991; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and the smallest rise was 1.0% in 1962.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1960 had the buying
power of $460; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1960 to 1991: $100 is worth $460 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1960 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1960-to-1991/